Rays of Northern Light

God Bless Us, Every One …

Well, all our hard work to prepare for this Christmas party has paid off. We had lots of helpers and great fun putting it all together. The members were serenaded by some great talents in the ward who were in period costumes for the theme of “A Christmas Carol”. Even our bishop and his wife dressed for the occasion, repurposing their Halloween costumes to look very Victorian. We had about a hundred and fifty people show up, some were new friends, and many were old friends that hadn’t been seen for a long time. It was a very festive mood with music playing throughout the night. Our program consisted of a sister telling the story of Scrooge to the children with our live actor hamming it up with his “hum bugs” and frowny face. But of course, he transformed into a generous and happy man in the end. He gave away money to the kids in the form of chocolate coins. The primary children sang a couple of songs as well. Many people hung around even after all the clean-up was done, to visit just a little bit longer. We had lots of extra food (especially ham, my overplanning) and were able to give it away to families in need.

      Elder Glenn and I were just a little stressed out as there was a stake bishop’s storehouse event in the hall that morning. It went long and then the participants had a lunch afterwards. We convinced them to use another room for their lunch so we could start the set up.  Even though we had the whole building reserved the stake activities can override us. But we still got it all done in time. Bash, a recent convert to the church, runs a restaurant and he was a wiz in the kitchen and helped make everything go smoothly. Pearl, a member we have been reactivating, had a great time making our costumes for Scrooge and the carolers perfect.  Our young missionaries lent us a hand too with decorating and setting up lights. The pictures don’t quite capture how nice it all looked. I didn’t get all the pictures I wanted because I was so busy in the kitchen and all, but we did have a photo corner where many had their family photos taken. I think we even stayed pretty close to the budget (Tim was happy about that).

      This past week we also had a really good visit with a man who is committed to coming back to full activity in the church. We are helping to prepare him for someday going to the temple.  He has anxieties that have prevented him from attending church on his own, but he has come twice now and yesterday he stayed for the second hour. We meet with him during the week and are reteaching some of the missionary lessons. He is so excited to move forward in his life and has been looking for someone to invite him and help him take those first steps. We also think he will enjoy our institute class that will start up in January. There are several other young single adults that we hope to get into that class from our ward and greater community. 

      Our area is one of the fastest growing areas for converts in the world right now. Our mission president shared with the mission last night that in 2022 there were about 200 baptisms of new converts in our mission. Last year there were more than 400 and we are at over 650 this year so far. We are witnessing all age groups and cultures coming to learn about the Savoir. Some of them have been seriously searching for a long time. When they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught in our church they recognize the truthfulness of the message very quickly. Each Sunday night we have a zoom meeting with the mission president where we see each zone report in with their new friends and baptisms. It is so exciting to hear their stories. I love this work that we are doing in the Canada Montreal Mission. It is a thrill to know that we are involved in the most important cause in the world, that of gathering Israel. There is so much joy in the faces of our new friends in the gospel. To see the changes in their lives is priceless.